Of course you've looked over the
marriage licenses for the past year."

"Yes. Her name isn't on the list."

"Did she have money?"

"About fifteen dollars, we figure."

"That wouldn't take her far--unless the man gave her some. Have you been
to a detective agency?"

"Yes."

"We'll put blind ads in all the papers telling her to come home. We'll
rake the city and the state with a fine tooth comb. We're bound to hear
of her."

"She's desperate, Jeff. If she's alone she'll think she has no friends.
We've got to find her in time or--"

Jeff guessed the alternative. She might take the easy way out, the one
which offered an escape from all her earthly troubles. Girls of her type
often did. Nellie was made for laughter and for happiness. He had known
her innocent as a sunbeam and as glad. Now that she was in the pit,
facing disgrace and disillusionment and despair, the horror and the
dread of existence to her would be a millstone round her neck.

The damnable unfairness of it took. Jeff by the throat. Was it her fault
that she had inherited a temperament where passions lurked unsuspected
like a banked fire? Was she to blame because her mother had brought her
up without warning, because she had believed in the love and the honor
of a villain? Her very faith and trust had betrayed her. Every honest
instinct in him cried out against the world's verdict, that she must pay
with salt tears to the end of her life while the scoundrel who had led
her into trouble walked gaily to fresh conquests.

Cogged dice! She had gone forth smiling to play the game of life with
them, never dreaming that the cubes were loaded. He remembered how once
her every motion sang softly to him like music, with what dear abandon
she had given herself to his kisses. Her fondness had been a thing to
cherish, her innocence had called for protection. And her chivalrous
lover had struck the lightness forever from her soul.

For long he never thought of her without an icy sinking of the heart.

Part 2

Weeks passed. Sam Miller gave his whole time to the search for the
missing girl. Jeff supplied the means; in every way he could he
encouraged him and the broken mother. For a thousand miles south and
east the police had her description and her photograph. But no trace
of her could be found. False clews there were aplenty. A dozen haggard
streetwalkers were arrested in mistake for her. Patiently Sam ran down
every story, followed every possibility to